The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and an image processing program which are used to perform editing such adding or deleting of an image in a photo book and the like.
A photo book (electronic album) is a service which creates a photo album of a layout desired by a user by transmitting a plurality of images (image data) captured by the user through a digital camera and the like to a service provider via the Internet.
Further, software is also available which enables the creation of an arbitrary photo book in a manner such that a user inputs an image captured by a digital camera to the user's personal computer (PC) and operates the PC.
In a case where the photo book is created, for example, the user may select a desired template from a plurality of templates in which the arrangement position of the image and the like (layout) are determined and freely determine the number of pages of the photo book, the images to be disposed on each page, the arrangement of the image on each page, and the like.
Further, in the photo book, an arbitrary page may be selected and displayed on a display, and editing such as adding or deleting of an image on the displayed page may be performed.
As an example, the deleting of an image in the photo book is performed as follows.
As an example, when there is an instruction to edit a page, as shown in FIG. 8A, a page which has one horizontally long image positioned at the upper portion and two small and horizontally long images positioned at the lower portion and arranged in the horizontal direction is edited. It is assumed that one image positioned at the right and lower position is deleted from the page.
Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 8B, templates (that is, the candidates of the template) corresponding to two horizontally long images included in the photo book are displayed on a predetermined area of the display (the left side in the example shown in the drawing).
Next, as shown in FIG. 8C, the user selects a template (the frame in the dashed line), and instructs the application of the template. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 8D, two images which are not deleted are layouted with the selected template, and the page after editing is displayed.
That is, in the conventional photo book, the user needs to instruct adding and deleting of the image but also instruct selecting or applying of the template when performing editing such as adding or deleting of an image arranged on each page.
On the other hand, there have been various proposals for reducing the process taken by the user in the editing of the image of the photo book.
For example, JP 2006-74592 A discloses a photo book editing device which detects the number of images on the edited page, selects a template (layout data) according to the detected number of images, and rearranges the images on the page of the photo book according to the selected template.
According to the editing device, there is no need for the user to select the template of the image data and it is possible to automatically arrange the images on the page of the photo book using the optimal template.
Further, JP 2007-49518 A discloses a photo book creating device which layouts images using a template including a main layout frame allocating a main image and a sub-layout frame allocating a sub-image as a layout frame. In the photo book creating device, when the number of the sub-layout frames and the number of the sub-images are not equal to each other after the comparison therebetween, the blank sub-layout frame is deleted or a sub-layout frame is added to the template of the other page.
In the photo book creating device, it is possible to create a good-looking photo book by leaving an impression of the main image through this process.